


I believe in you

by synoa



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Blood, Canon-Typical Violence, Derek is Not a Failwolf, Harry Potter References, M/M, Original Character(s), Post Season 5, Pre-Slash, Spark Stiles Stilinski, but Derek came back, not season 6 compliant, the witcher series References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2019-02-15 09:54:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13028580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/synoa/pseuds/synoa
Summary: After saving Lydia in Season 5, Stiles leaves for the summer to learn about his Spark. He is not allowed to take any electronics to limit the risk of small explosions, and that means having to rely on letters to get news from home. Thank God Derek likes writing.But Stiles has a feeling there is something weird going on, and are the bad guys always after Derek?





	I believe in you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ritarmandi](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=ritarmandi).



> This is a Secret Santa gift for the lovely ritarmandi. I hope you enjoy

Stiles keeps tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, not even in time with the music just to keep his hands busy. He knows that the only reason Scott isn’t going insane with it is that he has years of exposure to Stiles’s twitchiness. He is still giving him worried looks now and then, and he looks ready to ask Stiles to turn the car around and figure this out by themselves. They both know it’s not possible this time, but Scott is going to ask all the same.

-Are you sure about this, Stiles?-

They’ve had this conversation before, but having evidence that Scott is worried for him makes his nervousness a tiny bit better.

-I’m not sure about going to some remote place to learn magic, but I need to learn about my spark. I saved Lydia and I have no idea how that’s too much of a liability.-

-And maybe it’ll be like going to Hogwarts for summer courses right before my Senior Year.- Stiles tries to lighten the mood.

-I don’t think you will be going to a magic castle with changing stairs. -

-No, but I will be going to a house near a forest outside a small touristic village, and while Hogsmeade was never explicitly stated as turistic I bet, as the only all-wizarding village in Britain, it had some tourists. And I’m not allowed to take technology.- Stiles goes for one of his tangents.

It makes Scott laugh in exasperation, which is all good in Stiles’s book.

-And I bet Mrs Durkan has a huge library.- Stiles continues more seriously. -Maybe I’ll finally be able to find something about pack bonds between alphas and non shifters.-

-Derek said there are stories about alphas being able to talk with their packs through them; that would be neat.- Scott says

-I hope so, Scotty. Mrs Durkan is an old friend of Deaton, but hopefully, she won’t be as cryptic. It would be a nice change to have someone forthcoming in their teachings. Someone like Professor McGonagall.-

-You’ll be in trouble if she is half as strict as McGonagall.- Scott says laughing while they pass the Brantford city limits.

They follow the GPS on Scott’s phone uphill on a dirt road. It ends in front of a big stone house that has clearly been renovated to add huge windows. He parks next to the Toyota already in front of the house, and they get out to wait for his dad’s car. Scott and his dad had insisted they wanted to come, to at least see where he was going to stay, considering he couldn’t call them.

Just as his dad is parking, a middle aged woman with a messy head of curly, blond hair in jeans and lilac sweater gets out of the house. Stiles can’t refrain from quietly telling Scott

-Definitely not Professor McGonagall-

Scott laughs and nudges him towards the house. She has an unreadable expression on her face, and Stiles suddenly hopes she hasn’t heard. He wants to make a good impression after all.

-Welcome, I’m Mrs Durkan and you must be Mieczyslaw- she says with a small smile. Her pronunciation of his name is practically perfect

-That would be correct. Everyone calls me Stiles though. These are my father and my friend Scott-

-Yes, Alan told me about the peculiar situation you have in Beacon Hills- she comments cryptically -Please come inside, you can get settled in your room and Myt can give you the tour of the place.-

She touches the side of the door while they pass, probably manipulating some kind of protective ward. Stiles feels it, but it’s completely different from the wards at the animal clinic. He will have to ask what how they work.

***

The life of a Spark apprentice is far less eventful than movies made him believe. It probably doesn’t help that only other two people live in the house, Mrs Durkan and her niece Myt, who is also learning magic. She is a druid, so she spends a lot of time in the greenhouse, but Stiles gets to help her sometimes and he genuinely enjoys talking to her about the supernatural world. She always thought Mrs Durkan was just that weird relative everybody has, but on her 15th birthday she accidentally made all the flowers in the house bloom, and two days later she got her very own “Yerr a wizzard Myt” moment.

Stiles spends his mornings learning about different types of magic users and where their magic comes from, and his afternoons reading about a whole lot of supernatural lore. The library is everything Stiles hoped for and more. That’s mainly what keeps him going: discovering about all kinds of different beings and the stories connected to them; particularly after the first couple of weeks when Mrs Durkan starts focusing on his spark and the ways to control it, which is not going well.  
Actually, two things keep him going, reading about lore and the letters from home. Well, from Derek mainly. Stiles gets a new envelope on his desk every three days like clockwork.  
He is discovering a new side of him. Apparently when he isn’t rushed Derek enjoys talking, or, well, writing. Stiles has been telling him about some of the lore he is learning and Derek usually has something to add or a different version the Hale pack used to tell.  
Derek always sounds so earnest in writing, and Stiles can’t help but find it endearing. It’s starting to be a problem, the way his heart goes all over the place every time he gets a new letter from him. There is just something about imagining Derek sitting down in front of one of the big loft windows. If Stiles is being completely honest there is just something about Derek Hale. There always was, but he holds himself in a different way now. Like he finally managed to let go of some of his guilt, somewhere between getting back his yellow eyes and hunting the Desert Wolf.

A new letter is supposed to be coming, but Stiles is kind of regretting the last missive he sent him. He spent a good part of the letter complaining about Mrs Durkan and how her method for controlling his spark isn’t working, and how he needs more information and she won’t give it to him. It was impulsive and he’s worried Derek’s answer is going to be “quit whining”.

Stiles actually really likes Mrs Durkan, she is fair and asks for a lot, but in a way that encourages you to get better. The problem, in this case, is that she wants Stiles to control his magic just from belief.

“Choose an appropriate rune, focus on it and believe it will happen.” she told him, just that morning.

-Easy to say, if only runes made any kind of sense- Stiles mutters to himself. 

He is taking a break and walking one of his favourite hiking trails in the park, one with very few tourists.  
He has been pouring over the book Mrs Durkan has given him on the most common runes trying to find one that appeals to him, or at least one that he can interpret into creating something out of thin air with _belief_  
The source of the argument with Mrs Durkan is that Stiles wants a more advanced book, thinking that maybe having all the information will make some of the runes make sense. He feels like this is worse than Latin; at least, then, he had Lydia helping him. So much of this is left to affinity with the runes and personal interpretation, that there is only so much Mrs Durkan or even Myt can help him with.

Stiles is still lost in his head when he comes back from his walk in the forest, so he is startled for a second when Myt calls him to the kitchen. 

-Stiles, there is something for you!- 

Stiles follows her voice and notices the small package on the dining table. 

-How was your walk?- she asks 

-Uneventful, but it was nice to be outside. I hadn’t realized how much time I spent in the preserve until I left Beacon Hills. I’m not sure it helped with my rune problem, though- 

Myt looks at him with a comprehensive smile. 

-I feel your pain. But you’ll get there.- 

-Do you need help with dinner?- Stiles asks, unsure how to take the vote of confidence from someone he hasn’t known for very long. 

-Nah, I just have to keep an eye on the oven. Go open your package.- 

Stiles, himself curious about what could be in the package, doesn’t ask again. 

Once in his room, he doesn’t waste any time, tears the tape and opens it. Inside there are three different letters, two cards, a Moleskine and something wrapped in paper.  
The first card pictures a ghost saying “I believe in you” and inside every member of the pack added his own iteration of a “You’ll figure it out” message. The second card is from Lydia, and it says, in a nice calligraphy font, “It’s ok to ask for help”. She says to open the paper-wrapped thing next and explains that one should be very careful what he writes on his body with.  
Stiles can’t avoid the laughter when he opens it. She got him an eyeliner pen and makeup remover. It’s actually on point but only Lydia could find such a peculiar reason to send him makeup. 

There is a short letter from Scott, which is normal. The guy doesn’t have the patience for writing, and while he and Stiles can talk about anything for hours, it doesn’t translate well to letter. There is a fairly standard letter from his dad, telling him about any news from Beacon Hills. It ends with “I hope everything in this package helps. Derek run around a lot to make it happen. Love Dad” 

The last letter is, as expected, from Derek. It’s the exact opposite of what Stiles was fearing. He would never have expected unconditional support via post system. 

_Dear Stiles,  
I hope you worked things out with Mrs Durkan, I know you like to follow tangents and it can get hard to focus, but try to understand what works for her and then change, so that it works for you. Sometimes having all the information can get overwhelming. Runes are not exactly a language, but they are to an extent, and you don’t want to add exceptions and weird combinations before you got the basics down._

_I know you packed notebooks with you, but I thought the Moleskine could be something to record your own information and learning process on runes. And one can never have too many notebooks._

_I told the pack to just give me their letters to add to my envelope in the future, so maybe some of the others will write more often._

_I look forward to hearing from you_  
_Sincerely_  
_Derek_

Stiles knows rationally that he has the support of his pack, but having them come together to remind him when he needs it is a bit overwhelming. And he can’t help thinking how far Derek has come and how good an Alpha he would be now. How good of a boyfriend really, but that’s not a road he is willing to go down. He tries to focus on the present itself and the job he still needs to do. He is not closer to the solution about the runes, but he does believe in himself a bit more now. 

He doesn’t feel like going back to the rune book before dinner, so he starts thinking about magic users he knows from tv and video games. One that comes to mind, since he is also thinking about runes, is Geralt of Rivia.  
Muttering “Might as well try” he takes Lydia’s pen and draws on his arm the triangular spiral that is the Aard sign, he doesn’t want to set his room on fire after all.  
He closes his eyes and tries his best to believe that a spell from a video game can work. When he opens them again the room is suddenly a mess. As if a telekinetic wave got released and moved everything that wasn’t nailed down. Holy shit, it worked. 

He goes to dinner with a lighter heart, and ready to ask Mrs Durkan about slavic runes and magic. 

*** 

Stiles has made some decent progress in the last days. While the Glagolitic alphabet (possibly the most ancient slavic alphabet) doesn’t make much more sense than the runes he had been studying previously, he finally understands what Mrs Durkan meant when she was talking about runes calling out to you. 

Like Vedi which is the action of knowing and Uk that stands for knowledge. They both call to him in different contexts, and it’s bugging him that on paper they are so similar, but he has some kind of intrinsic understanding about their usage. 

According to Mrs Durkan, the next step is combining them to get more nuanced results. But for now, he’s going to the post office, sending a letter to Scott on a few things he managed to find on pack bonds. There are also letters to his Dad, Lydia and of course Derek. He has carefully drawn protection runes on the sides of the letters, a little additional protection in Beacon Hills can never hurt, and if it doesn’t work it counts as practice. 

But it’s going to work because he believes in it. 

He also spent a good half hour drawing symbols on his arm just because you never know when you might need them. There is a Zivethe for “life” and a Nash for “ours”, Dobro for “good”, and all the spells from the Witcher, because he is a nerd at heart. And fire, telekinesis, shield, slowing down and confusing enemies make for a good combination to have on hand.  
If they all circle the Hale triskelion that’s just because he is missing home and he is not going to draw Scott’s circle pattern because it’s stupid.

He is waiting at the post office when he notices the lady next to him in line. There is something supernatural about the way the light reflects in her eyes and the way she holds herself like this is not the skin she is most comfortable wearing. Stiles is almost sure she is not a werewolf but she could be a different type of shifter.  
She notices the name on the envelope on top, Derek Hale, and seems immediately more interested in Stiles, while trying her best not to let it show. She is not very successful and Stiles has a bad feeling about this.  
He tries not to fidget too much while he waits in line, both to avoid acting suspicious and so that she can’t read any of the other addresses on the envelopes, for example, his dad’s.

As soon as he’s done he rushes back home and goes to find Mrs Durkan. Hopefully, she can help him figure out what that was about. And if it turns out she is after Derek, he needs to warn them. All the more reason to put some more belief in those protection runes.

***

Derek is on his way back home from one of his usual border patrols in the preserve when he starts feeling watched. It’s a discorcenting experience, he can’t smell anything out of the ordinary and none of his enhanced senses are giving him any kind of clue. Nonetheless, the feeling is there and Derek has learned to trust this kind of instinct. He considers his options for a moment: running to the relative security of his loft and risk leading them to his home, or investigating further and seeing what is watching him.  
But if this was anything good they would have introduced themselves. They could just be gathering information on the pack before approaching, but following Derek in the woods doesn’t seem like the most convenient way to do that.  
He decides for a strategic retreat and a call for backup. He’s dialing Scott while keeping most of his attention on his surroundings, but he still doesn’t see the attack coming from his side.  
Derek rolls out of the way after the initial impact and drops the phone, hoping Scott will pick up and hear the commotion. He devotes his attention to the man in front of him, who doesn’t waste time and lounges again, claws out, trying to land a hit on Derek’s side.  
The guy is fast. Derek barely moves out of the way, but it leaves him open on his left side, a move his opponent probably expects. He braces himself for the feeling of claws ripping his skin but they somehow fail to connect and they barely scratch him.  
The guy seems more surprised than Derek, but he quickly recollects and tries again with a combination of movements Derek has no hope of predicting, let alone countering.  
Derek is somehow unscathed again and the guy shifts into a puma with bright blue eyes, ready to attack again but when he does he somehow only manages to rip his jacket out.  
It looks like a standstill, but Derek can feel something is different. He needs to try and land his own attack before his opponent realizes as well, but his experience in fighting big predators is almost null, so he improvises and lounges for the back of the beast, trying to claw his neck from behind. They roll on the forest floor and Derek howls in pain as claws rip his back. He holds onto the puma and finally manages to draw some blood as well, only for the puma to shake him off, making him land on the grass. Derek takes half a second to get his breath and when he sits up, Malia is sprinting towards him and the puma is nowhere in sight.  
By the time he is standing on his own, and picking his jacket up, Stiles’s letter still in the pocket, Scott has also reached them. 

They are both asking things to Derek, who doesn’t know the answer to half their question when his phone rings. It’s an unknown number and Derek just puts it on speaker, whatever it is it either regards the whole pack or is not relevant right now.  
He does not expect to hear Stiles’s panicking voice.

-Derek?-

-Stiles? I’m here with Scott and Malia, what’s wrong?- suddenly he can focus a bit better again.

-I think someone might be after you, where are you guys?-

-In the preserve...- says Derek

-Derek was just attacked by a werepuma- adds Scott

-What? Are you alright? -

-I’m healing, it was a beta, fortunately. Do you know what they want?-

There is a pause over the phone

-Your blood. We think they are trying to do a ritual that requires a few ingredients like that. But they probably don’t have the full description, it’s in a book in Mrs Durkan library and we’ve seen the werepuma trying to get close to the house. Or one of them, if there is one in Beacon Hills as well-

-Are you safe?- Derek asks

-And how much blood are we talking about? Could the guy use the residue on his claws?- says Malia

-No, it takes quite a lot, I wouldn’t worry about that- Stiles assures them quickly

-What does the ritual do?- asks Scott

-Supposedly it can give the alpha’s power to a target, but from the way it’s formulated there is going to be a catch somewhere. If it worked people would have been using it, the ingredients are rare but not impossible to find-

-What about the ritual itself? Do they have a magic user already with them?- asks Scott

-Could be. I couldn’t smell him before or during the attack until he shifted- says Derek

-That could be a problem. I’ll go ask Mrs Durkan about it.-

-Ok, in the meantime we’ll get the rest of the pack and see what we can find about the werepuma- says Scott

-Ok, I’ll call you when I have information. Stay safe- says Stiles

-Stay safe- they echo before the line goes dead.

***

Stiles wakes up in a warehouse, chained to a chair. There is a metallic stench surrounding him and for a moment he thinks it’s just to mask his scent from his pack, then he realizes that on the table in the corner are what looks like several vials of blood, jars of powder and various fresh herbs. When he tries to get his hands free, a weird pull makes him realize that they are also talking blood from him, and that can’t be good.  
He vaguely remembers seeing the woman from the post office, a werepuma, with the corner of his eye before getting hit in the head. And then nothing, until waking up.  
She obviously moved him somehow, they are nowhere close to Brantford, judging by the size of the warehouse, and hopefully, she moved him toward her partner, which could mean he is closer to Beacon Hills.

Stiles tries to focus his magic enough to get free, but he can’t reach the runes he’s written and there is a headache slowly creeping up to him, so there is not much he can do.

And then there is a man there, freakishly fast, and Stiles is used to werewolves. Hopefully, he is the guy that attacked Derek and there are just two werepumas on a quest to become alphas.  
The guy removes the almost full vial of blood and the needle, which Stiles had tried his best not to look at.  
Stiles clearly miscalculated the whole situation, but it’s time to do what he does best, talk and buy time.

-So, what do you want? I’m sure there were easier ways to get some blood than kidnap me.-

-We just need you for some magic, the blood was a nice bonus. We don’t need it, but spark blood sells quite well. I must admit I hoped for more of a challenge, misleading you into believing we were after the ingredients instead of the caster was childsplay.-

-You do realize that I just started learning how to use my spark, so it’s just as likely that I’ll mess everything up-

-I don’t think so. You see, it’s in everyone best interests that you do it right, I had just started playing with Derek but he was already bleeding so very nicely for me- he says smiling as if remembering a happy moment. It’s Gerard Argent level of creepy, and Stiles has zero ideas on how to get out of this one. He doesn’t know how long he has been missing for, or how far away the pack is.

-Who are you guys?-

-You don’t need to know that. Now, would you rather we keep on hurting your friends?-

-Ok- he says after a moment to get himself together- What do you need me to do?-

As if on cue, the female puma enters in Stiles field of vision, like she is in charge here.

-We need you to perform the ritual, of course.-

-Which ritual?- Stiles tries to stall

-You see, I was supposed to be the alpha, but my sister stole it from me. You are going to make me an alpha, that’s all.-

-How did she steal it? That’s not how it works.- Stiles can’t help but ask

-None of your business. Now, are you ready to start?- she asks

Stiles flinches, and the time is conveniently right so that hopefully she won’t get suspicious. Scott just somehow shouted in his ear that they are on his trail and to hold on. When this is over, Stiles is going to spend a week learning how to sense and use pack bonds, but that’s his least pressing problem.

His friends are coming for him, but he still doesn’t know how long it will take. Considering how much time he spent ranting about villains talking too much and revealing their plan he realises his hypocrisy in hoping to get more out of this guys. It would have been nice though. His best bet is going along for now.

-I’m ready.- he says not even trying to hide how terrified he is. -I’ll need the ritual description first, I haven’t learned it.-

-There is not much to it- she says giving him a single page- just mix the ingredients in order and add magic.-

-The description on the book was five pages long, where is the rest?- Stiles tries to stall again

-Just possible side effects, nothing that concerns you.-

She holds a single clawed finger close to his heart

-Now, time to start.-

***

Stiles has basically memorized the steps when he finally asks for them to bring him the ingredients.  
The pack is getting closer, but the female puma is getting more restless by the minute, looking ready to stab him and start looking for someone else to do the ritual.  
Stiles has a quarter of a plan that is completely dependent on his ability to believe, and on the pack being close by the time he is done with the ritual. It’s the kind of situation where the Force would come in handy, with its tendency of putting people in the right place at the right moment.  
Time to focus.  
The ritual requires him to add the ingredients in a certain order and mix a determined number of times, clockwise or counterclockwise depending on the ingredient and, considering the bad guy of the day is watching his every move, the whole thing reminds him of Potions with Snape. That’s not what he was thinking about when he said he wanted the Hogwarts experience.

There is power growing with every new ingredient, with every new stirring motion. Stiles has a fleeting thought to all the people they fought who wanted to accumulate this kind of power, and for a second he understands the pull. But this is not for himself, he is not worthy of the mantle of an alpha.

He is adding the last ingredient when the guy looks up suddenly more alert and leaves the room to investigate something. Stiles mixes the horrible concoction three times clockwise, then touches the small triskelion still on his forearm and believes with all himself that the power will go to the most deserving person he knows, Derek.

There is a deafening roar outside, and the female puma looks at him with panicked eyes.  
She is coming towards him but gets intercepted by Scott jumping through a window. And between the blood loss and the amount of magic he used, Stiles is out for the count.

***

They are half way back to Beacon Hills when Stiles wakes up. His eyes take a second to focus, to realize where he is, and murmurs

-Did we win?-

Lydia laughs from the front seat

-We won, two less power-thirsty werepumas in the world.-

Then he lays eyes on Derek, who is holding his hand.

-Stiles- he starts, and he doesn’t really know how to go on.

There is so much they need to talk about, how Stiles’s runes managed to protect him just by having a letter in his jacket, how he made him an alpha. How apparently Stiles is now his emissary, just by virtue of having given him power. How Stiles has a triskelion surrounded by symbols on his arm that were burning bright blue when they got there and has since slowly started to fade to black.

He doesn’t know where to start, and Stiles still looks so tired. They are going to have time to talk about this, and maybe if it all goes in the direction Derek is hoping for, there might be a confession of feelings to make. 

For the first time since Kate, that doesn’t scare him.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave kudos and comments if you'd like


End file.
